Paradox tells Ars what went wrong, how it’s fixing Magicka

Magicka launched in a broken, unfinished state, but Paradox is hard at work to …

It's not often you get to put questions to the man responsible for a broken game your friends just bought so they could play with you, but that's exactly what I did when I spoke with Fredrik Wester, the CEO of Paradox Interactive. Readers commented that our first story sounded personal, and it kind of was. I don't often get a chance to get all my buddies together to play a game, and it was galling when Magicka simply refused to work for any of us.

"We ran the game through two rounds of external QA, one of them dedicated to co-op multiplayer, including hot seat, LAN, and over the Internet. We got a lot of good feedback from the QA team on all forms of co-op," Wester told Ars. "I want to make it perfectly clear: it's obvious not enough was done to fix the online multiplayer part, as it turns out."

Life at Paradox

Paradox Interactive is a busy company. Its 28 employees are working with outside studios to launch 12 games this year. "Paradox also tends to invest in good ideas and people with strong visions, and oftentimes those fresh and new ideas come with less experience," Wester said, listing the many first-time developers they've worked with, including Taleworlds and Nitro Games. "That's kind of our thing now. The risk is always higher working with new studios, but we want to introduce the global gaming community to these teams and their games. While we might encounter challenges, we're convinced that the pros outweigh the negatives at the end of the day."

How Magicka was delayed

As the above video illustrates, the game was already delayed past its planned release in spring 2010. The extra time was spent on the tutorial and campaign. "The Internet Connection problems should have been better detected and addressed then, but now have to be fixed after the fact," Wester said.

If you read the comments on our first piece, you'll see how many gamers bought the game and continue to support Paradox. It's a balancing act to keep those gamers playing while assuring those having problems that you're listening. "When you get negative feedback, it will of course cause sales to slow down. On the other hand, we are also getting some good feedback from people who aren't having trouble and they seem to enjoy it a lot," Wester explained.

He's hoping sales continue to pick up once the game is running smoothly for everyone who wants to play. "We will also continue to release content to the gamers and make small changes that are suggested by the fans. I enjoyed this game immensely myself, but I confess to having mostly played it on LAN and local co-op, and that has been running smoothly."

Moving forward, putting out fires

So if Wester could go back in time a week or two with the knowledge of what happened, what call would he have made? "With that advance knowledge, we would have held the release a few weeks to test and fix the connectivity under more realistic circumstances to avoid the situation where people cannot connect properly to games online, instead of being limited to hot seat and LAN to enjoy Magicka," Wester told Ars.

Now the job is clear: fix the game, get people playing, and then the word will spread about the quality of the game itself rather than the bugs. "The development team is working around the clock and we will get this fixed," Wester promised. "We will make this right."

Yeah, I'm on the crossroads on this. On one hand it really looks like a great game but on the other I've read that a lot of people are hit or miss as to the playability of this. To test myself before buying I downloaded the demo of the game from Steam onto a brand new Dell enterprise laptop (i5 4GB ram mainstream video card) running Windows 7 and the game would not run. Granted I haven't tried reinstalling it but it is frustrating none the less.

I'm still considering buying it hoping that the demo on a newly imaged machine was a statistical anomoly. Has anyone else tried the game and have an opinion on this? (I know, loaded question here at Ars...)

To test myself before buying I downloaded the demo of the game from Steam onto a brand new Dell enterprise laptop (i5 4GB ram mainstream video card) running Windows 7 and the game would not run. Granted I haven't tried reinstalling it but it is frustrating none the less.

Make sure you have latest DirectX, .NET Framework and XNA. Then, try using default (or lower) settings. One of my friend had problems until he changed his in-game settings. The game is now flawless but they're working on it. Still.. it's a realllyyy fun game.

While it nearly spilled my coffee, the forum troll gag on the video can hardly convince anyone that's a delaying factor.

Anyways...

There can never be said there's no reason for a game to be released with outstanding bugs. This is after all a cause-effect world we live in. So, the (I must say, very entertaining) video and Fredrik words on the matter didn't suddenly made us realize something we didn't know already. In fact they just confirm the poor production values of the publisher. Particularly on what comes to QA. From Paradox, despite being an unconditional fan of their games, this comes as no surprise to me. It's their trademark, I would say.

It's not also because Fredrik says, if he knew better back then he would have delayed the game a bit longer, that I'm also suddenly convinced of his honest and good intentions and that all this was nothing more than an unfortunate consequence to an unforeseen event. This, because QA has the habit of looking for unforeseen events, and Paradox the habit of not making proper use of QA.

The problem, the real problem with Paradox, is in this quote from Fredrik himself: "While we might encounter challenges, we're convinced that the pros outweigh the negatives at the end of the day."

Two things:

1) Indeed they do. The pros have been outweighing the negatives. And good for them! I love their games... starting a few months after being published. And that's an issue with me. Because when a company sits on the laurels of that affirmation and shows no signs of understanding they have a fundamental problem in their process, there's in that an implicit statement: "We will keep doing things this way"

2) And that is probably because they understand an internal deficiency as an external challenge, as he puts in his own words. A rather nasty mistake to make, if indeed he means everything he said in that quote. Dealing with their QA processes and fixing them is what they have NOT been doing. Almost certainly because of 1). And that doesn't result from a challenge anymore. That results from the adherence to principles that have been over and over proven wrong. They are not facing a challenge, they are refusing to acknowledge an internal flawed practice.

But there's another point I'd like to make. Paradox doesn't sit alone in the hall of shame. With it, there's a whole online news industry that has been over the years increasingly adopting a passive attitude towards buggy releases (the last most shameful event having been the critically acclaimed heavily bugged release of Fallout: New Vegas). And with them sits also a consumer population that driven by consumer-greed has been more and more open to seeing their consumer rights trampled for just another game shot down the vein.

We should not expect an improving situation in the gaming industry considering Day 0 quality. I even predict eventually we will reach a point when we stop discussing outstanding bugs on initial releases and news like this will never again be published, because this all mess will become a de facto standard, legitimized by years of apathy.

I like Paradox's games, but a friend of mine and I had constant trouble trying to play Hearts of Iron 1 and 2 online, often spending more time reconnecting than actually playing. As a result, neither of us invested in HOI3 as we'd planned, and I've avoided other titles Paradox has published altogether. I'm dismayed to see things haven't changed all that much.

Sorry, but I think releasing unpolished, untested games is just the way Paradox works. I mean, look at their biggest games like Europa Universalis III or Heart of Iron 2: they were very close to unplayable when they were released, with some very game-breaking bugs, and it's the same story for any expansions. Seriously just read their forums. I love PI, it's just I don't like what they use to say to customers: buy the game now, in 2-3 months (actually 9 months for the Heir To The Throne expansion to EUIII...) a patch will come out and you'll finally enjoy the game.

I like Paradox's games, but a friend of mine and I had constant trouble trying to play Hearts of Iron 1 and 2 online, often spending more time reconnecting than actually playing. As a result, neither of us invested in HOI3 as we'd planned, and I've avoided other titles Paradox has published altogether. I'm dismayed to see things haven't changed all that much.

Still, I wish Paradox and their developer companies all the best.

Really? I've never tried their titles in multiplayer, but that's really bad. I love their games, so this is kinda sad to me.

In many ways, a steam release for this type of game is superior to that of retail. What benefit do you have to buying retail besides a disk you dont really need and an instructions booklet you probably wont read?

In many ways, a steam release for this type of game is superior to that of retail. What benefit do you have to buying retail besides a disk you dont really need and an instructions booklet you probably wont read?

I have to agree with this now. Unless they'll bring back the golden days of detailed manuals with backstory and other interesting tidbits of info, there's no reason to own a game on disc. Opening a game and reading the manual on the bus ride home used to be one of my biggest joys.

Not only that, but I've been messaged by many people asking whether or not they should buy it. There was a large number of people who wanted news on the game, and providing that information is what they pay me for around here.

Speaking for one single person (myself) the initial Ars article on it was the deciding point for me to not purchase the game right away and to wait until some fixes were out. As a consequence I am very interested in any and all follow-up news.

I'm absolutely interested in the game but I am one of those who is looking for games that I can play co-op with friends who are spread across the country. Games like this are one of the ways we can keep in touch and still do fun things together.

In many ways, a steam release for this type of game is superior to that of retail. What benefit do you have to buying retail besides a disk you dont really need and an instructions booklet you probably wont read?

Not again. Suffice to say, some like oranges better than apples. And that's what you are trying to compare. If you want to know, I prefer retail games. I like to look at my games also as collectible items. I'm very proud of my gaming closet with original boxes, manuals and other odds and ends that represents my own personal gaming collection starting in the 80s. But have no issue with online purchases and have done them myself. So, why should you care if someone likes retail better?

As for Paradox, their tradition -- which I believe they haven't broken yet -- is to only release retail versions of their own developed games. When acting solely as a publisher, they tend to stick to online releases.

Steam allowed me to play Magicka for 10 minutes and then buy it a few clicks later. If the game was on a shelf I might play the demo of the net, if I heard about it. As it is, the only reasons I would have known about the game would have been the Steam front-page or Ars. If neither had covered the game I wouldn't know about it. I certainly wouldn't have bought the retail version. Boxed games are, well, a little antiquated now. I'm quite happy to just have a digital release, with sides of OST, Wallpapers and so forth. Everything else is secondary and trivial...

This piece really read more like a PR whitewash than an article or story. Honest complaints about the game were confined to the first two paragraphs, after which the pen seems to have been passed to the PR team from Magicka.

I wonder how many of those 28 employee's are in QA. I do software QA for a living, and every time I see something like this it comes down to a poorly implemented or poorly managed QA department. QA is extremely vital to having proper running software. All to often companies consider QA to be an afterthought, and not all that important.

Fixing bugs is all well and good. But they've made some bone-headed design decisions and apparently are sticking to them.

Don't buy this game if you'd like to play "casually", which is to say for a handful of minutes here and there. There are checkpoints at good spacings, but these do not save your game. It only auto-saves when you complete a whole level, which can take a while and you've no idea how long it will take. Need to stop playing and come back later? You'll have to start the whole level over again from the beginning.

FUCKING RIDICULOUS.

It's especially egregious because turning the checkpoints into saves would have no effect on difficulty balance or anything like that. Yet they won't do it.

Why the HELL is this front page news?Some game company released an unfinished fucked up game and it's a major headline?

Come on Ars, what the fuck?

Judging by the pageviews, people are interested in the story. We also cover independent games quite often, so this is a natural fit for us. I suggest that if we write a story about a game you're not interested in, you avoid reading it.

For those on the fence, this game is hilarious fun. Works fine for MOST in singleplayer, and if you're getting stuttering, throw the game in windowed mode.

The stuttering is a VSync issue. If you have a Nvidia graphics card, open up the Nvidia control panel, go to application settings, manually add Magicka to the list (it's in \Steam\Steamapps\common\Magicka\Magicka.exe) and force disable VSync, that should eliminate the stuttering even in full screen. There's probably an AMD/ATI utility to do this too, but I'm not familiar with the Catalyst control panel.

For those having trouble getting the game to run, check the error logs (in the same folder as the .exe above). If they have a bunch of xna errors, reinstall xna (from Microsoft's website, the Steam XNA installer is completely broken and unusable, just like the Steam DirectX, .Net, and VB installers). If you have an error along the lines of "this key already exists" reinstall the game. Also, the devs were noting that sometimes there's an issue where the Wizard Hat DLC (free) must be installed or the game may fail to launch.

Judging from comments on the game, once you can get the game to launch, the only thing broken is online multiplay. I haven't tried using that much except for a quick test run that worked, so I'm not sure what the issues are with it. The single player works just fine, and from what I hear, local (hotseat and LAN) co-op works just fine as well.

There are checkpoints at good spacings, but these do not save your game. It only auto-saves when you complete a whole level, which can take a while and you've no idea how long it will take

Can someone else confirm that? It moves the game from an "eventually" to a no way in hell for me.

I've only beat the first two levels but they are both shorter than 30 minutes, and they are actually a lot shorter but I spend a lot of time dicking around trying new combos. Mix Fire and Water to get Steam add Lightning to Steam, and add shield to make it a AOE DOT. Now how do I cast it? Do I do a normal cast and get a half circle in front of me (for a safe retreat); I do a full circle to get the guys coming behind me as well; or do I cast it onto my sword allowing me to save it for later?

Paradox has a long tradition of releasing under-cooked products. A few years back I bought ($45) their Diplomacy title -- a bug infested, unplayable, badly implemented, no-AI piece of crap. They came out with two patches, which made the game crash only every 6 minutes (rather than every 2 minutes), and then washed their hands off the community which supported the game. Lesson learned...

Seriously, I am surprised to see such an established member throw a tizzy over such a simple thing. I suspect something else in life bleed over and this story was a convenient victim.

I think it's that this kind of stuff isn't really uncommon, so noting this game feels like giving all the other multiplayer releases that were.. uh, Fun to get working or otherwise incomplete a free pass. And if you did point out others, noting games with mega-buggy / incomplete releases is almost an entire Ars channel of content itself.

Just guessing here. I'm all for more exposure of this sort of thing in general though, so no vitriol here!

There are checkpoints at good spacings, but these do not save your game. It only auto-saves when you complete a whole level, which can take a while and you've no idea how long it will take

Can someone else confirm that? It moves the game from an "eventually" to a no way in hell for me.

I've only beat the first two levels but they are both shorter than 30 minutes, and they are actually a lot shorter but I spend a lot of time dicking around trying new combos. Mix Fire and Water to get Steam add Lightning to Steam, and add shield to make it a AOE DOT. Now how do I cast it? Do I do a normal cast and get a half circle in front of me (for a safe retreat); I do a full circle to get the guys coming behind me as well; or do I cast it onto my sword allowing me to save it for later?

My games go a lot more like this:

1) Cast shield on self2) Lightning-Arcane beam on group of enemies3) Get hit enough for shield to go down4) Attempt to recast shield on self, accidentally right click instead of scroll wheel click, casting a shield wall in the direction I was trying to run away5) Get trapped next to wall as I die a horrible, painful death6) Restart level, vowing not to make the same mistake7) Cast several spells, bringing enemies down to half health8) Get hit, lose some health9) Cast heal, right click instead of scroll click, heal enemies instead of self10) Die a horrible, painful death11) Restart level, vowing not to make the same mistake12) Get monsters down to half health13) Accidentally hit W when reaching for Q14) Cast spell on monsters, healing them15) Die a horrible painful death16) Restart level17) Do the shield thing again18) Curse at myself for 5 minutes19) Restart level20) Accidentally cast water on myself when meaning to heal21) Forget that I'm soaked in water22) Cast lightning spell23) Die horrible painful death24) Restart level...

There are checkpoints at good spacings, but these do not save your game. It only auto-saves when you complete a whole level, which can take a while and you've no idea how long it will take

Can someone else confirm that? It moves the game from an "eventually" to a no way in hell for me.

Confirmed. I love the core mechanic of this game but its wrapped up in a whole lot of wtf design choices. My items were also reset to the starter items when returning back from a saved game, hopefully thats a defect that gets fixed and not a feature. Steam says I've played the game for 8 hours but I've only seen the first two levels.

The one thing it needs more than anything else is a UI that shows how much health I have and what status effects are on me at the time. I've died so many times because I don't notice I'm near death and am on fire.

I originally decided not to buy the game based on your experiences. But I just looked on Steam again and it costs $9.99. I have a *really* hard time justifying any complaints at that price, so I decided to buy it. Maybe it will work, maybe it won't. But if my 9.99 helps them get things working better then I am happy.

I like seeing stories like this on Ars. Game companies really need to get shamed when they use the release and patch later method. There needs to be a greater focus on quality control. Unfortunately, game companies tend to be insulated from the impact of returns so they don't get smacked when quality control is not up to par.

I played through the entire demo of Magicka last night. Sorry, the game is not for me. I don't like the controls. Casting stuff is a complete pain in the ass. Getting knocked down by arrows every second is not fun. While I did clear the demo, I found the design of the elements and casting system to be the biggest problem. Controls were slow to respond to combos, there didn't appear to be a way to cancel incorrectly selected elements, and having to walk through nearly an entire map to get back to where you died is tedious. Then you have so many ways to cast stuff with little explanation. Sorry, not for me. Way too much of a button masher. I did not encounter any more bugs. It seems Windows really benefits from restarting after the game's initial install. That took care of the initial strange game behavior.